How much revenue did Retrowave make?

$315k–$846k after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Retrowave sell?

Q: How many copies did Retrowave sell?

383k to 622k copies, based on its 15k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 383k–622k; $315k–$846k after Steam's cut $572k–$1.3M before Steam's cut; from 15k reviews (Overwhelmingly Positive)

Copies are estimated from the public review count, adjusted for release year, and cross-checked against SteamSpy's own estimate.

Did the prediction match what actually happened?

We hid Retrowave and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Retrowave's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 128k–178k

best case 253k (OutDrive)

Games like Retrowave

A typical game among these

≈ 128k–178k copies

≈ $280k–$626k after Steam's cut

from ~3k reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019's Steam releases earned $34k or more before Steam's cut, so plan for that or less.

All 8 of the similar games are hits.

Best case: OutDrive at ≈ 193k–313k copies, ≈ $159k–$426k after Steam's cut.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Arcade (5 of 8) and 1980s (4 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Racing + 1980s, priced around $3.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2014 to 2023, and none of them shipped in the last two years.

How these numbers were worked out

A hit here: 1,000+ reviews, roughly $150k+ before Steam's cut (a standard indie benchmark).

Copies come from each game's reviews times a sales-per-review rate that falls with release age, from about 31 for the most recent game here to about 70 for the oldest, then widened into a range; revenue rides on that estimate times price. Source: GameDiscoverCo (2020) and VG Insights (2021).

Similar games

Game	Est. copies	Est. revenue	Price	Reviews	Tags
Slipstream 2018	Est. copies ≈ 53k–86k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $146k–$392k after Steam's cut $265k–$602k before Steam's cut	$9.99	2k reviews Very Positive	RacingDriving
OutDrive 2016	Est. copies ≈ 193k–313k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $159k–$426k after Steam's cut $288k–$656k before Steam's cut	$2.99	5k reviews Mostly Positive	RacingIndie
Music Racer 2018	Est. copies ≈ 110k–179k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $60k–$162k after Steam's cut $110k–$250k before Steam's cut	$1.99	4k reviews Very Positive	MusicRhythm
Razortron 2000 2016	Est. copies ≈ 136k–221k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $186k–$501k after Steam's cut $339k–$771k before Steam's cut	$4.99	3k reviews Very Positive	CasualRacing
Super Woden GP 2 2023	Est. copies ≈ 25k–41k too small to compare SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $90k–$242k after Steam's cut $163k–$372k before Steam's cut	$12.99	1k reviews Very Positive	RacingSports
Neon Drive 2016	Est. copies ≈ 91k–148k SteamSpy 100k–200k	Est. revenue $250k–$672k after Steam's cut $454k–$1.0M before Steam's cut	$9.99	2k reviews Very Positive	1980sRetro
Retro City Rampage™ DX 2014	Est. copies ≈ 136k–221k SteamSpy 200k–500k	Est. revenue $560k–$1.5M after Steam's cut $1.0M–$2.3M before Steam's cut	$14.99	2k reviews Very Positive	ActionOpen World
Cyber Hook 2020	Est. copies ≈ 104k–169k SteamSpy 50k–100k	Est. revenue $429k–$1.2M after Steam's cut $780k–$1.8M before Steam's cut	$14.99	4k reviews Very Positive	Indie3D Platformer